Current PA students to finish coursework in Midland

Published 1:11 pm, Friday, July 12, 2013

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center students currently enrolled in the physician assistant program at Midland College will complete all coursework in Midland even if the program moves.

“No decision has been made and we’re still considering all options, but whatever they decide will not effect the students” currently in the program, said Mary Croyle, TTUHSC executive director of communications and marketing.

Earlier this week, Croyle announced TTUHSC is exploring all options for the long-term viability of the PA program, which was created as a partnership between Midland College and TTUHSC in 1997.

Details regarding the program’s future will be discussed at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday during a press conference with TTUHSC President Tedd Mitchell, Croyle said.

Speculation and rumors regarding the PA program’s possible move have concerned many PA students and families.

Concerned that his daughter, a first-year PA student, may have to uproot her life and live apart from her husband while attending school, Kevin Slater emailed Mitchell Thursday questioning whether the program was moving.

“While I certainly hope and pray that the news possibly embellished the story, it definitely sounded like the program was decisively moving to Lubbock and even worse - immediately. This would not be moving 60 students, as they stated on the news, this would be uprooting 60-plus families,” Slater wrote in his email, which he provided to the Reporter-Telegram.

While Mitchell’s reply —- “regardless of any action which may be taken in the future, any current student will spend the remainder of their classroom time in Midland” — ensured his daughter’s future, Slater said he still is concerned by the possibility of Midland losing the PA training program.

“I’d hate to see it go away and move somewhere else,” Slater said.

He speculates the Permian Basin’s housing shortage has created staffing problems for the PA program and is a driving factor for considering a move.

“I don’t understand how you take a program that has grown so much and has such a success rate and decide to move it. If it’s staffing problems, that’s unacceptable. We all have those (problems) right now, but we work through them. We don’t just move our businesses,” Slater said.

Croyle said PA students, staff and faculty members have not been told anything definitive regarding the program’s future home.

The 27-month intensive PA program is composed of 15 months of classroom instruction, scheduled for completion in August 2014, and 12 months of clinical rotations in areas such as Waco, El Paso, Abilene, Lubbock and Amarillo, Slater said.